Yes / No / Not Given

Reading Passage

We tend to treat boredom as a problem to be solved. The moment a queue forms or a train is delayed, most of us reach for a phone. Yet a growing number of psychologists argue that we may be too quick to banish boredom from our lives, and that in doing so we lose something valuable.

Boredom, in this view, is not simply an absence of things to do. It is an uncomfortable signal that our current activity is failing to engage us – and discomfort, as anyone who has ever been prodded into action by it knows, can be a powerful motivator. When the mind is left unoccupied, it does not switch off; instead it begins to wander, drifting across memories, plans and half-formed ideas. Several studies suggest that this kind of aimless mental wandering is closely linked to creativity. People asked to perform a dull task before a problem-solving exercise, one experiment found, came up with more original solutions than those who went straight to the problem.

The trouble, the argument runs, is that the modern world offers an endless escape from this productive discomfort. A smartphone guarantees that no moment need ever be empty. Children, in particular, are rarely allowed to be bored, their days filled with lessons, screens and organised activities. Some researchers worry that a generation raised without unstructured, empty time may struggle to entertain itself, or to sit quietly with its own thoughts.

None of this is to romanticise boredom, which in its chronic forms is genuinely miserable and even harmful. The claim is narrower: that the occasional empty hour, far from being wasted, may be quietly doing important work. Perhaps, then, the next time a train is delayed, the wisest response is to put the phone away and simply stare out of the window.